Professor Geoff Thompson MBE, founder and chair Youth Charter
The ongoing issues and challenges of climate change, carbon zero footprint, the language, the culture and the societal changes that are now required for future generations have never been more critical in these uncertain and challenging times.
I believe that young people are at the very heart and soul of this agenda. One only has to look at the youthful climate activists that are there now to challenge us and hold us to account as a generation who feel failed by the world they will inherit and the legacy of generations past.
My notion of the environment (of which I was the product of in the East End of London) and recycling to the benefit of the planet was taking the returnable bottles to the front of the newsagents, securing the equivalent of 2.5p and then subsequently going around to the back of the shop and reclaiming them only to take them back a couple of days later to gain an extra 2.5p per bottle!
The world is in an uncertain place, but one thing that is most definitely clear as a result of Covid-19, the George Floyd Black Lives Matter movement and the resulting inequalities that sees the environment either first world / third world, inner city, suburban or rural - and irrespective of what you look like, what you believe in, where you come from, what you sound like or your lifestyle choice. With the jury having reached the historic guilty verdict the climate of fear and racism can be equally seen as important as the issue of climate change and will be determined not only by the G7 and existing institutions protocols and declarations by corporates and the continued impact of geo-political economics.
The real change and impact will happen as a result of a bottom up multi sector collaboration and partnership of global citizens, civic and civil society activists and interests that ensure that we can not only challenge and hold to account our respective governments but take individual and collective responsibility in a net zero society that can see a future that is full of hope and opportunity.
My particular interest centres around young people. My life’s work, through the charity that I co-founded in 1993, Youth Charter (www.youthcharter.org) was established during the bidding and hosting of Manchester’s 2000 Olympic bid and successful 2002 Commonwealth Games.
The environment and communities that I had come from knew nothing of climate change other than the fear of disaffection and disadvantage, which could lead to the anti-social gang related activity that filled the fear of an area likened to L.A. or Beirut “there is something in the air”.
The Youth Charter uses sport, art, culture and latterly digital activity to:
- Engage young people through sport, art, cultural and digital activities
- Equip them with mental, physical and emotional life-skills and resilience
- Empower them with the aspiration of further and higher education, employment and entrepreneurship.
As part of our engagement themes of classroom, playground and beyond the school gate, we developed an informal curriculum programme ‘Youthwise’ that would provide teachers with the lesson planning tools to bring to life those hearts and minds that found learning from textbooks simply a frustration that would see them suspended, disaffected or expelled onto the streets.
One of the modules of our Youthwise is the ‘Carbonwise’ extracurricular educational learning experience. In 2007 we took this programme to inner city schools of Salford and Manchester and delivered climate change awareness through sport, art and cultural activity. The programme even replaced the curriculum for the day with teachers observing cognitive behavioural change from uninterested pupils who didn’t care about the environment and the issues of climate change before the day began.
At the end of the day, with Britain’s most successful Paralympian, Dame Sarah Storey as the guest of honour for the Carbonwise festival, pupils presented their written and creative work, the resulting graffiti mural (developed with carbon friendly materials) provided an urban campus and lasting legacy to one lucky school!
The overall experience also formed of the BBC Young Reporters programme and featured a ‘Carbonwise’ poster that was presented to schools in the Greater Manchester area. Commonwealth Gold Medallist and Olympian Diane Modahl again provided a further sporting appeal in highlighting the issues when she presented certificates to the visiting schools.
The Pandemic and global lockdown has provided an unexpected and timely cleansing of the planet with clearer skies, cleaner water and environments that are now seeing commitments made at all levels of the global community to ensure that we take individual and collective responsibility for the earth that we will leave to our future global leaders such as Greta Thunberg, Ridhima Pandey, Tyronne Scott and other young global environmental activists.
The need for collaboration and partnership has never been more important. My work, with the Youth Charter, where we have identified this vital aspect of our work within our Global Call2Action is underpinned by the UN Youth2030 Goals and the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. These are all benchmarks and destination points by which we can measure our respective efforts.
However, next year’s Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games provides a golden opportunity with a legacy commitment of a carbon neutral Games. Everybody can win, competitors, administrators, spectators, young people and communities of the Commonwealth.
As the Official Nature and Carbon-Neutral Supporter of Birmingham 2022, Severn Trent will be delivering a number of initiatives to offset the carbon that will be generated throughout the Commonwealth Games. Within the plans, they aim to create 72 new urban forests, each one being linked to one of the nations and /or territories competing at the Games and 2,022 acres of woodland in the West Midlands, which will also host native species!
This will ensure that the 2022 Commonwealth Games leave a legacy, not just for the region, but for young people, the environment and the wider communities nationally and internationally.
The issues of climate change, the resulting impact on the lives of all citizens of the global community has never been more urgent in its challenge to the future of planet earth.
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